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Black Caviar to miss Newmarket

No show ... Black Caviar will not be racing at the Newmarket Handicap.

Vince Caligiuri: Getty Images

Champion mare Black Caviar will have her next run in the William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley next month and will definitely miss the Newmarket Handicap.

Trainer Peter Moody said the decision to skip the race in which the mare achieved her highest-ever rating when she won it in 2011 had been made with her welfare in mind, as much as the peace of mind of all connections.

"There'll be no 'will-she-won't -she'. She's not an acceptor," Moody said.

"We thought we didn't need to go down that path."

Moody said Black Caviar had come through Saturday's Lightning Stakes win in good order and would have another easy week before doing any more than light work.

"She had a saddle on and a canter at Caulfield this morning,' he said on Tuesday.

The trainer said his vets and a chiropractor had examined Black Caviar and had all ticked off on the unbeaten mare.

While the British racing media has seized on the possibility of Black Caviar returning to Royal Ascot, the scene last June of her closest brush with defeat, the prospect is seeming increasingly unlikely.

After the William Reid her owners have hinted at a possible two-run program in Sydney that would take her into April with her racing future - if any - beyond that undecided.